Saturday, 18 June 2016

MOTIVATION AND STAYING CREATIVE

The ironic thing about this post is it's taken me a good few hours to psych myself up to actually open up my blog page and start writing. In between a few hours of reading through my Bloglovin' feed, watching Louis Theroux documentaries and scrolling Instagram I've been thinking through how I want to write this post and the best way to tackle it. I often see blog posts on motivation, ways to maintain it or even find it to begin with, and as I enter the second month of summer after finishing my first year at university, I can safely say I'm falling out of routine and into a summer slump. Now, I can't be too hard on myself because I have pushed myself to get a part time job and organised two driving lessons a week for the foreseeable future but when it comes to being creative I'm worried I've hit a wall. My university course is one that incorporates both a more academic side in terms of researching, writing and referencing essays and creating marketing plans for new fashion brands as well as a more creative side of styling and promoting and I've found myself missing the stimulation from working 24/7 on my degree. Don't get my wrong I am MORE than grateful for a lil rest from the constant stresses of uni but equally I think my brain secretly misses the challenges which has got me thinking all things motivation and the ways I've been working on it to keep myself blogging, photographing and thinking up ways to keep my social media active.

CREATE MORE THAN YOU CONSUME

This is a quote I saw recently on Twitter and really got me thinking about the amount of time I spend online and how I could really do with a switch up in the balance between consuming and creating. Whilst working at F&F might not seem like the most strenuous job in the world, I usually come home having done upwards of 11,000 steps during a 5 hour period and feeling pretty tired to say the least. This often leads to social media scrolling from my bed and nights in with Netflix when really I feel I should be pushing my brain more creatively again. I think the point I'm trying to make is, sometimes you can get more reward and satisfaction from pushing yourself to work on things like blogging or running an online shop or photography in the times when we most feel like having a rest. It's important to get a work/life balance right but equally pushing yourself a little to not be lazy and take the easy option can often be just what is needed!

PLANNING AND A WORK / LIFE BALANCE

On the subject of a work/life balance, it really can be SO important to plan your time effectively to ensure you don't take on 200 things at once and have the time to be productive, successful and creative without being a frazzled ball of stress. We've all been the frazzled ball of stress. It's not cool. Whilst I've mentioned wanting to push myself to be creative on my blog, I know if I get home from work super tired and just want to eat lots of carbs and watch rom-coms all evening, then that's okay. I guess your outlet of creativity determines how flexible you can be with your schedule but as blogging is just a hobby for me I can upload if and when I choose. Perhaps getting into a more strict schedule of uploading posts would help in terms of readers and analytics but at the moment I just like uploading when I have something to say; no pressure to write just for the sake of it! For some running small businesses alongside their studies or full time jobs, creating a balance can be more tricky but I think the main thing to remember is valuing time off to get your creative juices flowing and recharge your batteries; then you'll be good to go!

SEEKING INSPIRATION

This point is more applicable to the idea of staying creative rather than motivation to do so because sometimes when you're lacking inspiration that can be the hardest part! It might seem pretty self explanatory but scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram are my go-to points of call if I want to get inspired for a blog post, whether it be trying a new photography method or just taking a look at content you've been loving yourself and working from there. I've spent the past couple of hours reading back into the archives of two of my favourite blogs (WhatOliviaDid and WishWishWish) and I found it SO inspiring seeing how two bad ass girl bosses are consistently producing interesting, intelligent and ultimately super enjoyable content! Their images are the standard I really aspire to have on my own site so the process of reading their blogs for hours on end (procrastination or productive ??) really motivated me to hopefully shoot some more OOTD's in the coming weeks! Obviously this scenario is one that applies to blogging but whatever avenue your creativity takes you down, there will always be people that inspire you or goals you aspire to achieve personally. Whatever your motivator, GO OUT AND DO THOSE THINGS! You will feel so satisfied afterwards.

This post is a little different for me but I hope you enjoyed my venting and tips on staying creative; if you relate in any way to this post definitely drop me a comment and let me know how you stay motivated! P.S. The absolutely GORGEOUS print in the photograph above is a recent purchase from a lovely lady I've been following on Instagram for many months now. I love supporting smaller businesses and this print is so up my street! If you want to have a browse of Annie's site you can do that HERE.